Cassandra
Cassandra is a major character in Tangled: Before Ever After and its follow-up series. She is the biological daughter of Mother Gothel, who was abandoned as a child when Gothel kidnapped Princess Rapunzel and hid away from the world. She was taken in by the Captain of the Guards thereafter. Ironically, upon Rapunzel's return to the palace, Cassandra would be enlisted as the princess' lady-in-waiting. The two developed a close friendship overtime, until Cassandra's internal bitterness and insecurities had drove her to harness the power of the deadly Moonstone Opal in an attempt to supersede Rapunzel As revealed in "Rapunzel's Return", Cassandra is the biological daughter of Mother Gothel, though she was severely neglected and was often left to fend for herself in their cottage while Gothel went about her daily business. On the night of Rapunzel's kidnapping, Gothel's initial plan was to seek refuge at her cottage, but upon arriving, she found that it was overrun by guardsmen on the hunt for the lost princess. To evade arrest, Gothel cut the bridge connecting her cottage to the mainland and fled the scene, abandoning Cassandra. With her mother gone, the Captain of the Guards decided to adopt Cassandra and raise her as his own in the palace of Corona. In the years that followed, Cassandra repressed her memories of Gothel and grew to be intelligent, mature, and an extremely skilled fighter. Taking after her father, she developed a dream to join the royal guard, though she instead served as a lady-in-waiting. Development Cassandra was initially written and created by Chris Sonnenburg who also finalized her design along with Shane Prigmore. During the early development of Tangled: The Series, the concept of Cassandra came early as Chris needed to answer the question "What is it that Rapunzel NEEDS in her life?" He looked on further than his own household and his two daughters. Not only their tight relationship but their many close female friendships as well. During research for the show, Chris stumbled upon an early sketch of Rapunzel's mother who at that point in the initial development of the movie was a warrior "Joan of Arc" type. Drawn to this image, Chris knew then she would play an important part in Rapunzel's story in some way.2 Personality Cassandra is described as being "tough-as-nails", a fitting description for someone who wishes to join the royal guard. She is snarky, sarcastic and has a somewhat dry sense of humor. She is also very intelligent, often subtly insulting Eugene in clever ways that go over his head. Despite this, she is extremely supportive and protective toward Rapunzel, her polar opposite—so much so, that she openly holds animosity for Eugene, believing him to be a selfish freeloader and undeserving of Rapunzel's love and friendship. In the series, however, their relationship gradually becomes less hostile, and slightly more playful as the two spend more time together. In "Fitzherbert P.I.", Cassandra genuinely admired Eugene's determination to become a royal guard, and actively assisted him in proving his worth to her father. It was later shown that Eugene's quirkiness had started to warm up to Cassandra, who found amusement in his excitement to school the guards as head of a training class. Aside from her no-nonsense persona, Cassandra is also a free-spirit, not unlike Rapunzel. Though she has a more cynical way of going about life, Cassandra also finds joy in adventure, living life to the fullest, and experiencing new things. This is most notably seen during "Wind in My Hair", where Cassandra is seen enjoying herself almost as much as Rapunzel. Although loyal to King Frederic and Queen Arianna, Cassandra is willing to break their rules (and risk her job) for the sake of Rapunzel's happiness and to accomplish her own dreams; this is seen when Cassandra offered to take Rapunzel beyond the kingdom's wall to explore some of the outside world and escape the pressures of royalty. Doing so required much stealth and cunning, traits Cassandra revealed herself to have abundantly that night. In "Challenge of the Brave", it is revealed that Cassandra has some insecurities about how she is seen just as a girl/handmaiden instead of a strong, skilled, and capable warrior who deserves as much respect as anyone in the royal guard. These insecurities, and the desire to prove herself can sometimes drive Cassandra to act selfishly, even to those she cares about. Once she realizes her mistakes, however, Cassandra is mature enough to own up to her faults and make amends as best she can. Cassandra's cynical nature gives her trust issues. Examples are that she doesn't forgive people easily, she doesn't like sharing her feelings, keeps secrets to herself, or she won't accept help. This is one of the reasons she has a rivalry with Eugene because he was a thief in the past and she thinks he's ignorant enough to not address other people's feelings (even though it's not his fault he can't tell). In "Not in the Mood", her personality develops a bit. She likes to show no mercy toward not just Eugene, but other suspicious-looking people. She later realizes she should be more compassionate. For starters, she made friends with a man who was large and scary, but friendly. She still has a firm belief that strangers can’t be trusted, especially when they lurk in the shadows. She jumps to conclusions about people’s actions rather quickly. If she doesn’t like someone, she’ll fight them. She even fights just for the fun of it, not in the mood for being nice. Over the course of Season 2, Cassandra's insecurity and desire to rise above everyone's view of her grew to a point where she became bitter to Rapunzel for always upstaging her at everything; a growing crack in their relationship that only gotten worse when she discovered her own backstory in the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow and that her mother chose Rapunzel over her, which soon motives her to betray Rapunzel and take the Moonstone for herself. She then ran away with the opal opting to use its powers to make her own destiny apart from Rapunzel and her former friends. Physical appearance Cassandra is a pale-skinned young woman with dark pink lips, hazel eyes and black bob-cut layered hair with gray highlights. Her signature outfit is a grayish-brown shirt, black leather gloves, a dark brown belt with a purse and a dagger on it, dark brown-and-red striped leggings and brown boots. When performing her duties as Rapunzel's handmaiden, Cassandra dresses in a blue and white dress, with a white headdress. Since attempting to touch Rapunzel while she was reciting the Moonstone incantation, Cassandra's right hand and wrist were turned pitch black. To cover for her injuries, Cassandra donned a knight's armor and a purple cape. When she is corrupted by the Moonstone Opal, her hair and eyes turn turquoise and her clothes turn black and dark blue with spikes similar to the Black Rocks. The Moonstone opal itself becomes embedded in her chest. Abilities Cassandra possess skills in horseback riddig, fencing, archery, athletics, and other skills in combat; which she had learned for being the daughter of the Captain of the Guards. She is also shown to be very clever when she understood Rapunzel's clues, had helped Varian with his project and spotting the mistakes in letters from a suspicious character. As well as possessing skills in acting, as she had tricked a Separatist of Saporia member into thinking that she has feelings for him, so he would come to Corona and she could uncover his true intentions. Cassandra also has skills in sewing, cleaning and other skills that are needed for her handmaiden duties. After bonding with the Moonstone's power, she, most likely, receives the life-draining power that it possesses, as evidenced by its energy coursing through her hair. She now has control over the Black Rocks which was first seen when she creates some to escape the Dark Kingdom. Category:Females Category:Tangled characters